The present disclosure relates to locating systems used in healthcare facilities to track the locations of patients, and more particularly to bathroom monitoring in a healthcare facility.
Patient rooms in health care facilities are generally equipped with a private bathroom for the patient. Patients who are mobile and able to exit their bed may use the bathroom at any time. This may include using the bathroom unassisted. However, some patients may inadvertently fall while in the bathroom. If a patient falls in the bathroom, significant time may pass before a caregiver finds the fallen patient because the bathroom door is typically closed preventing the patient from being seen on the bathroom floor. If a caregiver enters the patient room with the bathroom door closed, the caregiver will not know that the patient fell in the bathroom and, therefore, will not have any idea how long it may have been since the patient fell. The caregiver may decide to leave the patient room and plan to return after a period of time under the assumption the patient will exit the bathroom while the caregiver is away from the patient room.
Some asset tracking tags or badges may include motion sensors such as accelerometers to monitor patient movement. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,450,024 in this regard. However, including one or more accelerometers in a tracking tag adds to the overall cost and complexity of the tag. Furthermore, if the tag is included as part of a wrist band on a patient, then abrupt movements of the patient's arm may result in a false positive signal being sent indicating the patient has fallen when, in fact, the patient has not fallen but has merely moved their arm downwardly with a quick motion, for example.
Additionally, the patient's use of the bathroom may go unnoticed by housekeeping. That is, if the patient is unattended, housekeeping cannot track how often the patient is using the bathroom. Because sanitation is particularly desirable in a healthcare facility, it would be beneficial for housekeeping to know when the patient's bathroom should be cleaned. Accordingly, there is room for improving the systems and methods of monitoring patient use of bathrooms in a healthcare facility.